Each week, the White Privilege Conference and the Matrix Center for the Advancement of Social Equity and Inclusion, housed at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS), hosts a half hour radio show called Intersections Radio that features an interview with a different author, scholar, and/or speaker.
In this segment, Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo, co-authors of the book “Is Everyone Really Equal,” discuss social justice education, and provide tools for developing “critical social justice literacy,” and for taking action towards a more just society. The authors offer a collection of detailed and engaging explanations of key concepts in social justice education, including critical thinking, socialization, group identity, prejudice, discrimination, oppression, power, privilege, and White supremacy. Based on extensive experience in a range of settings in the United States and Canada, the authors address the most common stumbling blocks to understanding social justice. They provide recognizable examples, scenarios, and vignettes illustrating these concepts.
Author Bios:
Özlem Sensoy is an assistant professor of education at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC, Canada.
Robin DiAngelo is an assistant professor of education at Westfield State University, Westfield, Massachusetts.
Intersections Radio is hosted by Dr. Eddie Moore Jr., founder of the White Privilege Conference (WPC), which is held annually in cities across the United States; and Daryl Miller, who works with the WPC and other programs of the Matrix Center. The WPC is an award-winning national diversity conference that serves as a yearly opportunity to examine and explore difficult issues related to white privilege, white supremacy, and oppression, and works to dismantle systems of power, prejudice, and inequality. College students from around the country participate in the conference for academic credit.
Comments
Equality?
I don't think that the system was created to be equal, therefore making it unequal on itself. A lot of change needs to be implemented in order for equality to be for everyone. Their is still oppression going on which leads me to think that equality doesn't exist. Hopefully for the future. This country needs to turn things around with equal opportunities.
When the 7 Deadly Sins Overcome Us
I don't think the problem is the existence of inequality in our society and that the solution is eradicating inequalities. The problem is our understanding of/reaction to inequalities. They should not be viewed as definitive markers of people's quality as people. A rich person isn't automatically hardworking or smart and a poor person isn't automatically the opposite. Inequalities should be viewed relationally in a social way and should serve as signals as to what we should do for one another as naturally social beings living in collective, interdependent societies. For example, if we see that wealthy people are comfortably accessing the conveniences of their society and on the other hand we see poor people who are struggling for basic necessities, logic would lead us to believe that part of the responsibility that comes with wealth is financially helping those less fortunate. We get so caught up in explaining that people are poor because they are lazy and uneducated and Black and blah, blah blah, but the truth is those of us who can/should help them are not willing to do our part which I could equally argue says that we are selfish, careless, and arrogant. But labeling the perceived character flaws of each side, and putting so much effort into playing the blame game is not productive and does not address our duties to one another.
If we took the time to logically look at both sides of the equation we could see that rich have to help poor, healthy have to help sick, educated have to help uneducated, etc. If we cannot accept this as a truism of life, and are not willing to make sacrifices for it, then we're going to see the problems we see in societies today.
question
Do you believe inequality is impossible because of the world we live in today?
I think this issue of race
I think this issue of race must be tackled by everyone as a population. In order for there to be any change, everyone needs to help and contribute. This could range from direct actions to things like sharing your individual talents with others. By spreading what we are each individually good at and developing a sense of individuality we no longer have to identify individuals based on their "race".